The African Queen (1951) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC In Africa during World War I, a gin-swilling riverboat captain is persuaded by a strait-laced missionary to use his boat to attack an enemy warship. Director: C.S. Forester (novel), James Agee (adapted for the screen by) | 1 more credit » Stars: a list of 42 titles created 10 Sep 2012 a list of 23 titles created 15 Aug 2013 a list of 25 images created 23 Aug 2014 a list of 32 titles created 26 Apr 2015 a list of 49 titles created 1 month ago Title: The African Queen (1951) 7.9/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Won 1 Oscar. Another 2 wins & 9 nominations. See more awards » Videos When a rich woman's ex-husband and a tabloid-type reporter turn up just before her planned remarriage, she begins to learn the truth about herself. Director: George Cukor A man visits his old friend's hotel and finds a gangster running things. As a hurricane approaches, the two end up confronting each other. Director: John Huston Fred Dobbs and Bob Curtin, two Americans searching for work in Mexico, convince an old prospector to help them mine for gold in the Sierra Madre Mountains. Director: John Huston Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a rich family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail, and what might be love. Director: Howard Hawks A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette. Director: John Huston During World War II, American expatriate Harry Morgan helps transport a French Resistance leader and his beautiful wife to Martinique while romancing a sensuous lounge singer. Director: Howard Hawks When a U.S.

Naval captain shows signs of mental instability that jeopardizes the ship, the first officer relieves him of command and faces court martial for mutiny. Director: Edward Dmytryk A man convicted of murdering his wife escapes from prison and works with a woman to try and prove his innocence. Director: Delmer Daves A drama critic learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are homicidal maniacs, and that insanity runs in his family. Director: Frank Capra A woman is asked to spy on a group of Nazi friends in South America. How far will she have to go to ingratiate herself with them? Director: Alfred Hitchcock A newspaper editor uses every trick in the book to keep his ace reporter ex-wife from remarrying. Director: Howard Hawks A group of people traveling on a stagecoach find their journey complicated by the threat of Geronimo and learn something about each other in the process. Director: John Ford Edit Storyline September 1914, news reaches the colony German Eastern Africa that Germany is at war, so Reverend Samuel Sayer became a hostile foreigner. German imperial troops burn down his mission; he is beaten and dies of fever.

His well-educated, snobbish sister Rose Sayer buries him and leaves by the only available transport, the dilapidated river steamboat 'African Queen' of grumpy Charlie Allnut. As if a long difficult journey without any comfort weren't bad enough for such odd companions, she is determined to find a way to do their bit for the British war effort (and avenge her brother) and aims high, as God is obviously on their side: construct their own equipment, a torpedo and the converted steamboat, to take out a huge German warship, the Louisa, which is hard to find on the giant lake and first of all to reach, in fact as daunting an expedition as anyone attempted since the late adventurous explorer John Speakes, but she presses till Charlie accepts to steam up the Ulana, about to brave... Written by KGF Vissers Did You Know? Trivia Shooting was slow going. Tempers often flared and the cast and crew faced constant dangers and difficulties including torrential rains that would close down shooting, wild animals, poisonous snakes and scorpions, crocodiles, armies of ants, water so contaminated that they couldn't even brush their teeth with it, and food that was less than appetizing.

Lauren Bacall recalled, "We decided first night out that it was advisable not to ask what we were eating, we didn't want to know." See more » Goofs When arguing about who is going to steer the torpedoes, a cigar suddenly appears in Charlie's mouth. See more » Quotes Charlie Allnut : Nothin' a man can't do if he sets his mind to it. Never say die. That's my motto! Super Reviewer ½ Two legends onboard a small boat is enough to create magic. A John Huston adventure always shines above the rest because of its gravitas, an inherent solemnity that here is conveyed through Bogart and Hepburn. Pierluigi Puccini Super Reviewer Charlie Allnut: Oh, I'm not worried miss. Gave myself up for dead back where we started. "The greatest adventure a man ever lived... with a woman!" The African Queen is a movie I have wanted to see for a long time. It has the distinction of being one of those classic films that very film fan has to see. On top of that, it stars Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn and is directed by John Huston.

So there's really nothing to deter you from wanting to watch it. When WW1 is launched, a missionary living in Africa with her minister brother, must leave with a rugged, riverboat captain; after her village is destroyed by German soldiers and her brother dies. Rose wants Charlie to go down the river, which worries Charlie a great deal because as he says, there's only death down the river. He reluctantly agrees and the river, as well as a German U-Boat create many obstacles for the missionary and alcoholic captain. The African Queen wasn't the irrevocable masterpiece a expected, but nonetheless it is still a very good film. I wasn't blown away by anything that the film did, but it was undeniably entertaining and well constructed, written, directed, and acted. The African Queen is a film that needs to be seen by all film buffs. Melvin White Super Reviewer ½ The prim sister of a missionary who is killed when the German army come to their small corner of Africa convinces a pragmatic boat's captain to help her sink the German's nearby destroyer.

The story is a simple one, but this film is all about the characters, who are wonderfully written and perfectly played by two of the very best actors who ever graced the silver screen. Hepburn and Bogart bring a tangible sense of warmth and affection as their feelings grow for each other, Bogie displaying his rarely seen but keen sense for comedy. The visual effects have obviously dated rather badly, but it has more depth and romance than a hundred Hugh Grant or Andie McDowell films. Another classic from John Huston. xGary Xx ‎The African Queen (1951) directed by John Huston • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd What a time we had Rosie, what a time we had. -Charlie Allnut Despite John Huston 's brilliant directing, Jack Cardiff 's gorgeous cinematography and the script's entertaining dialogue it's still the on screen chemistry between Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn that is the film's strongest element. It almost overshadows everything else in the film as it's always the first thing brought up. As with most of John Huston's films, it's an adaptation of a novel, this one being from 1935 and written by C.S. Forester .

The changes from novel to film adaptation being for the good of the story are debatable, but them being for the best possible John Huston film would be spot on. Even if it was an adaptation,… Review by Steve G ★★★★ Or 'Kaiser Wilhelm II Approves Of Bogie And Kate'. When you approach widely loved classics such as The African Queen, I think sometimes there can be confusion as to exactly what they are loved for. For instance, when I have recommended Where Eagles Dare or Kelly's Heroes in the past, people have quite often expected some kind of serious minded war film or adventure rather than the action capers that you actually get. I approached The African Queen expecting a fairly serious wartime adventure and it took me about half an hour to realise that is not what this is at all. In fact, if you approach this film looking for answers as to why the two main characters are… Review by The Ron ★★★ John Huston's The African Queen stars Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn (two of the times biggest stars). It's consider a classic by many, and it's a film in which the legendary Bogart won the Academy Award for Best Actor (his only Oscar).

It's a tale of adventure in German East Africa at the beginning of WWI that I personally thought was good but nothing special. Humphrey Bogart plays Charlie Allnut, the captain of The African Queen, which is a rundown old riverboat. Charlie routinely delivers supplies to the village Kungdu where Samuel (Robert Morley) and his sister Rose (Katharine Hepburn) reside as British Methodist missionaries. Charlie warns them that war has broken out between Germany and Britain, but they choose… Review by Sally Jane Black 2 One of the first things that happens, right after the hymns, is Bogart casting aside what I think was a cigar (I got so mad afterward that I failed to note the particular detail), and the Africans scramble for it like feral animals. From there extends a proud narrative of Empire and patriotism in the name of the imperialist elite and an ill-paced romance. It's galling to witness. The story even has the white missionary preacher die because the sight of the locals being herded away at gunpoint was not, evidently, enough to make audiences sympathetic to the tale of vengeance to follow.

Every African character from there on out is in the employ of the Germans, villainizing them with… Review by Andy Elijah ★★★ Hmmm. This is no Treasure of Sierra Madre. I imagine at the time the African wilderness was thrilling to see onscreen, and of course the romance between two beloved stars having a thrilling adventure together. But something's just kind of missing here. Thought it was funny that despite having an aversion to physical contact and being the definition of "prude" that Rose still has considerable bloodlust and wants to blow up a German boat with homemade torpedoes. If nothing else it's a cool portrait of a (fairly) equal partnership in terms of gender roles. Relationship as adventure. The film is just the two of them solving problems one after the other and of course they have to work together. And… The African Queen (1951) - FAQ The content of this page was created directly by users and has not been screened or verified by IMDb staff. Visit our FAQ Help to learn more FAQ How much sex, violence, and profanity are in this movie?

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for The African Queen can be found here . Is this movie based on a book? The African Queen is based on the 1935 novel of the same name by English novelist C.S. Forester, pen name for Cecil Louis Troughton Smith [1899-1966]. It was adapted for the movie by American novelist James Agee and director John Huston. How closely does the movie follow the book? Those who have both seen the movie and read the book have pointed out several differences. One minor difference is that the main characters, Charlie Allnut ( Humphrey Bogart ) and Rose Sayer ( Katharine Hepburn ), are younger in the book. One major difference is that the ending in the movie is completely different from the ending in the book. What were Charlie and Rose doing in Africa? Charlie is a Canadian and captain of the African Queen.

He once worked as a machinist at a nearby mine. Rose and her brother Samuel ( Robert Morley ) are British missionaries who have set up a small church in the village of Kungdu along the Ulanga River. Why did Rose accompany Charlie down the river on the African Queen? After the German soldiers raid the village, round up the natives, and burn the buildings, Rose's brother Samuel takes ill following a beating by the soldiers. When Charlie shows up and finds Samuel dead and everything devastated, he offers to take Rose on his boat and hole up in the backwash of an island until they can figure out what to do next. Charlie explains that the Germans have taken control of the Ulanga River, set up a military post (Fort Shona), and placed a gunboat, the Kï¿½ningen Luise in the lake where the Ulanga empties. Rose notices that the African Queen is carrying cases of blasting gelatin and old airtanks and suggests that they make torpedoes of them and blow up the Luise. Charlie thinks that Rose is daft, but he agrees to take the African Queen down the river. Was "The African Queen" actually shot in Africa?

For the most part, the movie was shot in Uganda and the Congo in central Africa, using a mockup of the African Queen built on a raft. However, the scenes where Charlie and Rose are seen in the water were all shot in studio tanks at Isleworth Studios, Middlesex, England because of health and safety concerns. Robert Morley's shots were also filmed in England due to his theatrical commitments. ...Rose sang in the opening hymn: Cwm Rhondda, an Episcopalian hymn by John Hughes (words) and Mrs Dilys Webb (music). ...Charlie sang when drunk and again at the end: The Bold Fisherman How does it end? Charlie and Rose build makeshift torpedoes out of two airtanks in order to blow up the Luise, but a storm causes the African Queen to founder, and they are picked out of the water and onto the Luise. German officers interrogate Charlie, who tries to deny everything and says that he was just out fishing. The Court decides to hang him anyway. Then Rose confesses their plan to blow up the Luise because she wants to die with Charlie. The Germans order them both to be executed.

Prior to the hanging, Charlie asks the German captain to marry him and Rose. After the marriage ["I now pronounce you man and wife. Proceed with the execution."], the Luise suddenly explodes. It has run into the submerged African Queen and set off the torpedoes. In the panic that follows, Charlie and Rose jump overboard and begin swimming to shore, celebrating their success. How does it end in the book? Like in the movie, the African Queen sinks, and Charlie and Rose are picked up the Germans and forced to stand trial. However, the Germans decide not to hang them; rather, they are put to work on the Luise. A British ship attacks the Luise, finally sinking it, and Charlie and Rose are picked up. The British officers decide to send Rose back to England and Charlie to work in South Africa, so the two of them decide to get married. The African Queen (Film) - TV Tropes The African Queen You need to login to do this. Get Known if you don't have an account Share YMMV The African Queen is a 1951 romance/adventure film directed by John Huston , based on the 1935 novel by C.S.

Forester, and starring Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart . Hepburn plays Rose Sayer, a missionary's sister living in German East Africa at the start of World War I . Bogart is Charlie Allnut, the hard-drinking man with a riverboat who, among other things, brings the mail from town every few weeks. When Rose's brother dies, he offers to take her to the nearest town to catch a ship to Britain. Being gutsy as she is, Rose instead creates a daring plan to build a makeshift torpedo, sail down the river (which no one has ever done) and take out the Königin Luise, a ship patrolling the German-controlled lake that is the only thing standing in the way of the British army. This being a film with a man and a woman as its primary stars in the 1950s , naturally, they fall in love . Bogart's role won him his only Oscar , while Hepburn would add yet another nomination to her impressive collection.

The Troubled Production film made such an impression on Hepburn she later wrote a book about it, entitled The Making of The African Queen: or How I Went To Africa With Bogie, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind. Screenwriter Peter Viertel also wrote a novel about the shoot that was later adapted by Clint Eastwood as White Hunter Black Heart starring Eastwood as John Wilson (a Huston Expy ). This film is notable for how damn long it took to come out on DVD despite widespread interest: it only came out in 2010, at least in the US. (An earlier British DVD was taken from a faded print. Later DVD and Blu-Ray releases are fully remastered.) Tropes Associated With This Film Include: Adaptational Badass : In the movie version, Rose and Charlie actually succeed in sinking the "Louisa". In the novel they don't, the ship has to be sunk by a couple of more modern British gunboats transported overland piece by piece and then reassembled to be launched in the East African lake. Adaptational Nationality : Charlie is a patriotic working-class Englishman in the original novel. Bogart couldn't do the English accent, so the character was made Canadian.

His patriotism still applies to The British Empire , which sort of works. Adaptational Villainy : The Captain of the "Louisa" condemning Charlie and Rose to hang. In the novel he rejects that notion as uncivilized and hands them over to the British under a flag of truce. Beauty Is Never Tarnished : Rose can never look like someone who is eaten alive by tropical insects. She's Katherine Hepburn. Still mostly subverted, Bogie and Hepburn look sweaty and weather-beaten the entire film, even if they do retain their natural charisma. Even Hepburn's nice English clothes look she's been wearing them her entire ten years as a missionary. Bilingual Bonus : Bring your German vocabulary flash cards. Character Development : Rose learns to let go of her social inhibitions. It is safe to assume that Charlie introduced her to further 'stimulating physical experiences' seeing how badly they want to get married at the end. Does This Remind You of Anything? : An unbelievable amount of stuff gets slipped under the radar in this movie... [After going down the first rapids]: Charlie: I don't blame you for being scared, Miss, not one little bit.

Ain't no person in their right mind ain't scared of white water. Rose: I never dreamed that any mere physical experience could be so stimulating! Charlie: How's that, Miss? Rose: I've only known such excitement a few times before - a few times in my dear brother's sermons when the spirit was really upon him...I must say I'm filled with admiration for your skill, Mr. Allnut. Do you suppose I'll try practice steering a bit that someday I might try? I can hardly wait... Now that I've had a taste of it. And the scene of her pumping the bilges, as he shows her how to do it...more...slowly... Deus ex Machina : When the African Queen is stuck and lost in a marsh, Rose prays for help. When she and Allnut go to sleep that night, a sudden rain-storm washes them into the lake where they were headed to. Dry Crusader : Rose really doesn't like people drinking alcohol and demonstrates it by dumping out Allnut's gin. Grande Dame : Rose has some of the characteristics of this type, especially early on. Kick the Dog : The German army burning down a native village in act one.

Not an example of Moral Event Horizon in that it is implied the villagers survived and were captured, not slaughtered. Non-Nude Bathing : Rose and Charlie go bathing on opposite sides of the boat, for the sake of decency. Then Rose can't climb back in on her own; there are several Fanservice-y shots of her stretching her legs out to try, with no visible clothing. Finally she asks for Charlie's help, but insists that he avert his eyes... and when he pulls her up onto the boat, it turns out she was wearing a short shift the entire time, and just has the nudity taboos appropriate to the post-Victorian missionary that she is. MacGyvering : Allnut manages to repair his damaged boat using a makeshift bellows and anvil, and uses some cannisters, blasting powder and bullets to create some makeshift ramming explosives. Last Request : Allnut and Rose get one before the Germans are about to hang them. Allnut uses it to ask the captain to marry them. According to The Laws and Customs of War as accepted at the time, civilians who attack soldiers were supposed to be executed, just like spies.

Married at Sea : Well, married at a lake, but it's still the captain who marries them. Leads to one of the most iconic lines of the film. Captain: I now pronounce you husband and wife - proceed with the execution. Mood Whiplash : Charlie clowns around making animal noises that send Rosie into fits of laughter. Then they both notice the huge waterfall ahead... Not Even Bothering with the Accent : Rose is actually supposed to be a Briton (the sister of very British Robert Morley); for most Americans, at least, Hepburn's Bryn Mawr educated tones are a reasonable approximation. (Allnut is somewhat justified in the film [though not in the original novel] as a Canadian.) To North American ears , he does not sound the least bit Canadian. In novel and original script Allnut was meant to be Cockney. Huston cast Bogart and changed his nationality because he knew Bogart wasn't going to pull off that accent.

The African Queen (1951) Pages: ( 1 ) ( 2 ) ( 3 ) Background The African Queen (1951) is the uncomplicated tale of two companions with mismatched, "opposites attract" personalities who develop an implausible love affair as they travel together downriver in Africa around the start of World War I. This quixotic film by director John Huston, based on the 1935 novel of the same name by C. S. Forester, is one of the classics of Hollywood adventure filmmaking, with comedy and romance besides. It was the first color film for the two leads and for director Huston. The acting of the two principal actors - Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn - is some of the strongest ever registered on film, although this was their first and only pairing together. They portray an unshaven, drinking and smoking captain of a cranky tramp steamer, and a prissy and proper, but imperious and unorthodox WWI-era African missionary spinster. [This was 44 year-old Hepburn's first screen appearance as a spinster, and marked her transition to more mature roles for the rest of her career.

At 52 years of age, Bogart was also past his prime as a handsome, hard-boiled detective.] John Mills, David Niven, and Bette Davis were, at one time, considered for the lead roles. During the course of many hardships and quarrels along a course filled with tropical dangers and 'evil' Germans in a warship, they develop a hard-earned love and respect for each other. The real prize and goal of their water journey down the Ulonga-Bora, other than the destruction of a German boat, is to overcome the various psychological obstacles that stand between them. [There is a remarkable resemblance between Disneyland's 'Jungle Cruise' attraction and this film. A 1977 TV remake starred Warren Oates and Mariette Hartley. In 1987, Hepburn wrote a pungent account of her experiences during the shoot in her first book, The Making of the African Queen, or How I Went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind.

Actor-director Clint Eastwood also chronicled the making of the film in White Hunter, Black Heart (1990), basing it on Peter Viertel's 1953 account of his experiences making the film and working on James Agee's script with John Huston.] Directed on location (on the Ruiki in the then Belgian Congo and the British protectorate of Uganda) by John Huston (it was his ninth feature film and fifth film with Bogart), the film was nominated for four Academy Awards - Best Actress (Katharine Hepburn), Best Screenplay (James Agee and John Huston), Best Director, and Best Actor (Humphrey Bogart). Bogart was the only one to win - the film's sole Oscar. In hindsight, Bogart's award (his sole career Oscar) was probably consolation for the oversight he experienced three years earlier when he wasn't even nominated for one of his best roles as Fred C. Dobbs in Huston's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) . The Story Credits for the film are displayed atop a view of the blue, cloud-filled sky through the canopy of the rain forest.

The camera tracks along the crown of the trees and then slowly moves downward to a shot of thatched rooftops in a native village. One of the buildings has a cross at the pinnacle of a steeple - a title card reads: "GERMAN EAST AFRICA, September, 1914." From a closer angle, the camera again descends from the cross into the doorway where an engraved stone panel identifies the site: 1st METHODIST CHURCH KUNG DU. Inside the mission church, stuffy English missionary Rev. Samuel Sayer (Robert Morley) and his prim, repressed, spinster sister Rose Thayer (Katharine Hepburn) lead the church service. Utterly devoted to her brother, high-collared, fervent, perspiring Rose pedal-pumps and plays the organ to assist the uncomprehending natives in noisy, atonal hymn singing - in the semi-comic scene. Above the sound of the voices inside, the sharp sound of a steamboat's whistle is heard to announce its arrival.

A gin-drinking, cigar-smoking, uncouth drifter named Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart), the owner of the squat, 30-foot ramshackle supply launch steamer, The African Queen, arrives on his up-river rounds to deliver supplies, mail and news to the isolated village. A grubby, seedy-looking Charlie observes the out-of-place British couple in the mission leading the service. Representing the secular and carnal world, he discards his stogie absent-mindedly on the ground outside. [A similar scene involving another cast-off cigarette by Bogart opens The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) .] The black natives enthusiastically rush to pick up the discarded item, causing a commotion and distracting them from the seriousness of their singing and religious endeavor. He is invited to share afternoon tea with the missionary couple.

As they walk inside, the simple-minded Charlie brags: "There ain't nobody in Africa except yours truly who can get up a good head of steam on the old African Queen." In a humorous scene again illustrating their personality, spiritual and social differences, the very-very stuffy English pair, primly starched and dressed, ignore his embarrassing and uncontrollable stomach growls and gurgles as the Reverend notices an advertisement in a newspaper he is reading for "Page Woodcock's Wind Pills" - the perfect antidote for Charlie's indigestion and liver complaints. He daintily sips tea with his grimy hands and tries to apologize but only makes things worse: "Just listen to this stomach of mine. Way it sounds, you'd think I had a hyena inside me...Ain't a thing I can do about it." The Sayers continue on with their restrained parlor room conversation and disregard his down-to-earth comments. Before Charlie leaves and continues on his journey, he warns them that he may not be around for a few months on his regular route delivering mail or supplies, alarming them with the news of the start of a European war between Germany and England. Rose and Rev.

Samuel fear being middle-class English colonialists - alien foreigners ("enemy aliens") in German East Africa. Charlie doesn't believe they will be affected by the conflict in their out-of-the-way location. Defensive and corrective, Rose is faithful and confident that they will be safe: Charlie: What harm could anyone do the Germans in this god-forsaken place? Rose: God has not forsaken this place, Mr. Allnut, as my brother's presence here bears witness. Charlie: Oh, no offense, Miss. Rev. Sayer: War. Charlie: Yeah, yeah it looks like it. On second thought, Rose wonders whether they should try to reach refuge in the city while they can. But her brother believes "a good shepherd doesn't desert his flock when the wolves are prowling." They kneel to utter a self-important prayer together: "We must ask the Almighty to bless the arms of England to carry her through her hour of triumph." Soon after Charlie's tug is seen leaving, a platoon of German troops (led by two white German-speaking officers and a group of black soldiers) marches into the mission village. Without any warning, they invade and burn the huts and the church to the ground.

Samuel protests the destruction: "What's the meaning of this outrage? How dare you?" He is dealt a blow to the head from a rifle butt. The natives are rounded up and herded off as forced soldiers or slave laborers. A distraught Rose helplessly watches as her shattered, fragile older brother deliriously suffers a fever and nervous breakdown. The shock of seeing his life's work destroyed causes him to lose his mind. He remembers that he volunteered as a missionary because he had no facility with languages of Greek and Hebrew and failed the exams. He cruelly appraises the comeliness and insignificance of his sister as his accompanying servant to Africa, while she tends to his perspiring forehead: Not comely among the maidens, but she too can be a servant in the House of the Lord. Even for such as she, God has a goodly purpose. He dies shortly afterwards (off-screen) one morning. When the grizzled Charlie returns the day of his death, he learns that Rose's village has been devastated and that her brother has expired ("They didn't shoot him, Mr. Allnut, but they may as well have done").

He offers to promptly bury her brother ("What with the climate and all, the quicker we get him under the ground the better..."), rescue her and take her downriver from the now-dangerous territory to civilization. Along with her as additional freight, Charlie explains that he must also escape with the battered African Queen, since his cargo includes blasting gelatin, and cylinders of oxygen and hydrogen. Charlie is content to sit out the war in the sanctuary of the quiet backwater and not go anywhere to escape detection. He believes they have plenty of supplies to last a long while: Charlie: So far so good. Here we are safe and sound, as you might say. The question is, 'What next?' Rose: Quite. Charlie: We've got heaps of grubs here, Miss. We're all right as far as that goes. 2,000 cigarettes, 2 cases of gin. Ha, ha. We could stay here for months if we wanted to. It's not a bad place to sit out a war...All the comforts of home including running water. Rose: We simply can't remain here in this backwater until the war is over, Mr. Allnut. Charlie: Can't we, Miss? You got the map.

Show me a way out and I'll take it. (He dangles a cigarette from his lower lip.) Rose: The British will certainly launch an attack. The only question is which way will they come. Their escape route seems impossible anyway - the large Central African lake at the end of the dangerous and treacherous connecting river, the Ulanga and Bora Rivers - is patrolled by a large German warship, the 100-ton steamer, the Louisa. "She's the boss of the lake 'cause she's got a six pounder...the biggest gun in Central Africa." Before the lake, the Germans occupy a fort overlooking the river at Shona, and all along the way there are treacherous rapids: Charlie: Rapids. A hundred miles of water like it was coming out of a fire hose. And after that, why, the rivers even got a different name. It's called the Bora. That goes to show ya. They didn't even know it was the same river until this fella Spengler got... Rose: He got down it, I remember. Charlie: Well, yes, Miss, in a dugout canoe. He had a half a dozen Swahili paddlers.

Map makin' he was. That was his map you was looking at. Rose: Mr. Allnut?...What did you say is in these boxes with the red lines on them? Charlie: Well them? That's blastin' gelatine, Miss. Rose: Is it dangerous? Charlie: Bless you, no, Miss. That's safety stuff, that is. You can get it wet and it don't do it any harm. You set fire to it and it just burns. You can hit it with a hammer and it won't go off - at least I don't think it will. It takes a detonator to set it off. I'll put it over the side, though, if it worries you. Rose: No, we may want it. Mr. Allnut?...What are these long, round, torpedo-like things? Charlie: Oh them? Them's oxygen and hydrogen cylinders, Miss. Rose: Mr. Allnut? Charlie: (smugly) I'm still right here, Miss. There ain't much of any other place I could be on a thirty-foot boat, ha, ha, ha. Rose: You're a machinist, aren't you?

I mean, wasn't that your position at the mine? Charlie: Yes, a kind of a fixer. A jack of all trades, a master of none, like they say. Rose: Could you make a torpedo? Charlie: How's that, Miss? Rose: Could you make a torpedo? Charlie: A torpedo?...You don't really know what you're askin'. You see, there ain't nothin' so complicated as the inside of a torpedo. It's got gyroscopes, compressed air chambers, compensating cylinders... Rose: (unperturbed) But all those things, those gyroscopes and things, they're only to make it go, aren't they? Charlie: Yeah. Yeah, go and hit what it's aimed at. Rose: Well, we've got The African Queen. Charlie: How's that, Miss?

The intrepid, strong-willed Rose develops a brave plan and becomes possessed and determined to carry out the daring scheme to take action against the Germans - to travel on the Ulanga and Bora Rivers to take them to the lake where they can destroy the German gunboat that controls access to central Africa, using the explosives he has on board: If we were to fill those cylinders with that blasting gelatine and then fix them so that they would stick out over the end of the boat, and then run the boat against the side of a ship, they would go off just like a torpedo, wouldn't they?...We could, what do you call it, get a good head of steam up, and then point the launch toward a ship and just before she hits, we could dive off. Couldn't we? She has little interest, concern or awareness of the challenges they face, and doesn't want to just sit out the war. Charlie objects to her hair-brained, suicidal scheme: Charlie: There's only one little thing wrong with your idea. There ain't nothin' to torpedo. Rose: Oh yes there is. Charlie: There's what?

Film Notes -The African Queen The African Queen (American, 1951, 105 minutes, color, 35mm) Directed by John Huston Robert Morley . . . . . . Reverend Samuel Sayer Peter Bull . . . . . . . . . . Captain of Louisa The following film notes were prepared for the New York State Writers Institute by Kevin Jack Hagopian, Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at Pennsylvania State University: The story of Charlie Allnut and Rose Sayer appealed to John Huston instantly. C. S. Forester’s tale of a mismatched couple, the convict and the missionary lady, centered on one of the best colorfully conflicted duos in Huston films. The leads were first to have been played by Charles Laughton and his wife, Elsa Lanchester, and then by Bette Davis and David Niven. But Katherine Hepburn, then finishing a national tour of As You Like It for the Theatre Guild, loved the book, and saw in Rosie a woman much like herself—a prim-seeming product of a starched society with vast, hidden reserves of unorthodoxy and bravery.

She’d never met Humphrey Bogart or director John Huston, but she admired both of them. She agreed to do the film on one condition—that the film would actually be shot in its setting, equatorial Africa. Renegade independent producer Sam Spiegel knew that Hepburn was the only Rosie in the world, and he gulped and agreed. No one could have known the agonies that awaited them, agonies that made everyone feel remarkably close to the world of Rosie and Charlie. Shipping a whole movie company thousands of miles across the world and into the African bush greatly appealed to director Huston, who, after the experience of THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE’s Mexican locations, was even more eager to use extensive location work in this film. He flew over 25,000 miles of African terrain before choosing a camp near Biondo, on the Ruiki River in what was then the Belgian Congo. Not only did the realism of the African location for this particular story appeal to Huston, but so did the end-of-the world feel: "I come from a frontier background. My people were that. And I always feel constrained in the presence of too many rules, severe rules; they distress me.

I like the sense of freedom. I don't particularly seek that ultimate freedom of the anarchist, but I'm impatient of rules that result from prejudice." Throughout his life, Huston took any excuse to light out for the territories. The god-forsaken Congo was the perfect place to make a film about how quickly the cheap paint of civilization can wear off the human psyche. For the rest of THE AFRICAN QUEEN cast and crew, it was a green hell. Spiegel had gone deeply in hock to make the film with the cast he wanted, and there was precious little left over for a huge location crew. For a time, Hepburn doubled as the wardrobe mistress. Missing from the African set were the squadrons of grips, gophers, and hangers-on common to a Hollywood shoot. In their place were bemused natives, lumber camp laborers, and the occasional colonial administrator. "Nature," says Hepburn’s Rose Sayer in the film, "is what we were put on earth to rise above." But THE AFRICAN QUEEN group kept most intimate company with nature for the long weeks on African location, close by the black water of the Riuki in the rainy season.

The cast endured blood flukes, crocodiles, huge army ants, wild boars, elephant stampedes, malaria and dysentery. Poisonous snakes in the outhouses and bugs in the food added even more character to the steaming inferno, and Hepburn lost twenty pounds making the film. Sanitation was nonexistent, a particular horror for Hepburn, fastidious to a fault and a urologist’s daughter. Bogart and Huston took to consuming Homeric amounts of alcohol, as the jungle closed in about them. Bogart’s own self-reliance and confidence initially made him despise the chinless Charlie Allnut. But the weeks in the jungle worked a change on Bogart, as he sampled the destitute life of Charlie. As Huston said, "All at once he got under the skin of that wretched, sleazy, absurd, brave little man." Hepburn became angry with Huston and Bogart, and berated them for their endless practical jokes at her expense, including obscenities written in soap on her mirror. "She thought we were rascals, scamps, and rogues," said Huston, with a smile, many years later.

Of course, she was right. "But eventually she saw through our antics and learned to trust us as friends." Hepburn developed a respect for Huston as a true ‘actor’s director,’ who gave her the key to Rose Sayer when he advised her to play the role like Eleanor Roosevelt. "That is the goddamnedest best piece of direction I have ever heard," wrote Hepburn, and their friendship was sealed. For Hepburn, the role of Rose, "the skinny, psalm-singing old maid" who discovers a reservoir of strength and very earthly affection for one completely unlike herself, was art imitating life, complete with tsetse fly bites and leech infestations. She came to regard the shoot as one of the great adventures of her life, immortalizing it in a 1987 book with the absolutely accurate title The Making of The African Queen or How I Went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind. The AFRICAN QUEEN shoot, like the search for Scarlet O’Hara, or Darryl F. Zanuck chasing starlets around his desk, is now part of Hollywood lore.

Clint Eastwood’s 1990 film WHITE HUNTER, BLACK HEART is loosely based on the Huston of THE AFRICAN QUEEN, from a novel by Peter Viertel, one of THE AFRICAN QUEEN’s screenwriters. THE AFRICAN QUEEN shoot turned out to be a truly Hemingwayesque experience for the Bogarts, Huston, and Katherine Hepburn, perhaps "The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber" mixed with an equal measure of The Green Hills of Africa. But not really, for THE AFRICAN QUEEN affirms the primacy of romance and trust over the worst obstacles of nature and human nature. Hepburn captured the essential joy of THE AFRICAN QUEEN in a mental snapshot from the film: "Dear Bogie. I'll never forget that close-up of him after he kisses Rosie, then goes around in back of the tank and considers what has happened.

His expression—the wonder of it all—life." — Kevin Hagopian, Penn State University For additional information, contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or online at African Queen The (1951) | Classic Film Guide Classic Film Guide Contact African Queen The (1951) Posted on August 29, 2014 by Rob in America’s Greatest Love Stories , America’s Greatest Movies , America’s Most Inspiring Movies , Essential Films // 0 Comments African Queen The (1951) Directed by John Huston who adapted the C. S. Forester novel with Pulitzer Prize winner James Agee this essential adventure drama set during World War I stars Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn (their only pairing). This helped Bogie net his only Oscar on his second of three Best Actor nominations. He plays the scruffy crude hardened steamboat captain Charlie Allnut. Hepburn picked up her fifth of 12 Best Actress nominations for her portrayal of prim proper and religious Rose Sayer.

Director Huston ( The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) ) picked up his third of five Oscar nominations whereas he shared his sixth of eight Screenplay writing nomination with Agee. In an extremely competitive year the film itself failed to receive a nomination. It was added to the National Film Registry in 1994. #17 on AFI’s 100 Greatest Movies list; #14 on AFI’s 100 Greatest Love Stories list. #48 on AFI’s 100 Most Inspiring Movies list. When Rose’s missionary brother Reverend Samuel Sayer (Robert Morley) dies – after his mission and its village is burned down by German-led natives shortly after the onset of WW I in 1914 Allnut rescues her; they ‘escape’ on his supply boat the African Queen. While trying to decide where to go/hide Rose hatches an idea to traverse a seemingly impassable river route to ‘torpedo’ the German warship Louisa which strategically patrols a lake within the continent. Initially Allnut humors Rose thinking that the roughness of the river will scare away the old maid’s crazy notion. Instead the excitement emboldens her.

Allnut continues reluctantly and along the way the two encounter obstacles that include huge rapids a German fortification a narrowing channel and even leeches. During the adventure their relationship develops from respect to fondness and then love. Rose and Charlie eventually make it to the river to take on the Louisa captained by (actors) Peter Bull (whose character has one of the funniest ‘last’ lines onscreen) and Theodore Bikel. Purchase this DVD now at or buy the Blu-ray Disc here

Question: Who directed the 1951 film 'The African Queen'?
Answer: JOHN HUSTON